CATALYST SESSION 1

Monday • 10:15–11:05 AM

  • The Engagement Effect

    What happens when we stop asking, “How do I keep their attention?” and start asking, “How do I create an experience they want to be part of?”

    Join Steve Spangler for a featured Catalyst Stage session focused on The Engagement Effect and the power of creating learning experiences that spark curiosity, participation, and connection.

  • Session description coming soon.

  • Student behavior often communicates pain that discipline records fail to capture. In this interactive session, Coach Ed Bradley introduces the H.E.A.L. Framework, a practical approach that helps educators hear the story behind behavior, equip students with needed skills, align accountability with repair, and link families, schools, and community support.

    Through powerful student stories and hands-on activities, participants will learn trauma-responsive strategies they can use immediately while maintaining safety, accountability, and high expectations.

  • Leadership is not about position, title, or authority. It is about influence exercised for the benefit of others.

    This interactive workshop introduces the FOR OTHERS Leadership Framework, a practical model for developing trust, strengthening organizational culture, and creating a lasting impact.

    Using stories from education, mentorship, popular culture, and everyday life, participants will explore nine leadership commitments: Focus on People, Offer Encouragement, Respect Every Person, Own Your Influence, Tell the Truth Wisely, Help Others Grow, Express Gratitude, Remember the Legacy, and Steward Relationships.

    Through discussion, reflection, and practical application, participants will identify leadership strengths, areas for growth, and actionable steps they can implement immediately. Attendees will leave with a renewed understanding that the leaders who make the greatest difference are those who choose to be FOR OTHERS.

CATALYST SESSION 2

Monday • 11:15 AM–12:00 PM

  • This session will focus only on questions you bring about specific behaviors you are facing in your classroom. Attendees will have an opportunity to raise specific issues within their classroom and will leave the session with a potential resolution to the issue. The session will help educators to better understand student behavior and increase understanding of how simple behavior interventions can help to improve student behavior.

  • Attendees will learn how PGSD continuously identifies innovative CTE opportunities that serve all students. The presentation will highlight unique third-year experiences, the role of CTE in the Bridge to Career course, inclusive pathways for students with IEPs and TIER supports, and recruitment strategies that have driven sustained enrollment growth over the past decade. Participants will also gain insight into scheduling, testing, staff development, and high school partnerships.

  • Preparing students for the future requires more than adopting new initiatives or technology. It requires intentional instructional design that develops the knowledge, skills, and dispositions learners need to thrive. In this interactive workshop, two experienced educational leaders, representing Pre-K and middle school, will demonstrate how purposeful instruction creates a seamless foundation for future-ready learning across grade levels.

    Participants will explore how developmentally appropriate, student-centered instructional practices build critical thinking, collaboration, communication, creativity, and problem-solving from the earliest years through adolescence. Through classroom examples, collaborative discussions, and practical planning strategies, attendees will discover how instructional decisions made in Pre-K influence student success well beyond elementary school and how middle school educators can continue building on that foundation.

    Educators will leave with research-informed strategies, planning tools, and actionable resources that can be implemented immediately to increase student engagement, strengthen instructional alignment, and prepare learners for an ever-changing world. Regardless of grade level, participants will gain a shared vision for creating purposeful learning experiences that truly advance the future of learning.

  • Great classroom management begins long before a behavior issue occurs, it begins with the art of instruction. In this engaging and thought-provoking session, educators will explore how instructional delivery, student engagement, and classroom culture work together to influence student behavior and academic outcomes. Drawing from more than 14 years of educational experience, Monica Arrington challenges participants to examine a fundamental question: If students had a choice, would they want to be in your class?

    Participants will discover practical strategies for increasing engagement through intentional lesson design, relationship building, student ownership, and high-impact instructional practices. This session highlights the connection between the art of instruction, classroom culture, restorative practices, and behavior management, demonstrating how engaging learning experiences can reduce disruptions and increase student achievement. Educators will leave with actionable tools to create learning environments where students are invested, accountable, and eager to participate.

  • Teacher retention is one of the greatest challenges facing schools today, and creating environments where educators thrive is essential to student success. This interactive session provides practical, research-informed strategies that empower new and experienced teachers to build confidence, strengthen resilience, and sustain professional well-being.

    Participants will explore actionable approaches to organization, time management, relationship-building, classroom culture, collaboration, and professional growth that can be implemented immediately. The session also highlights how intentional support systems and positive workplace practices contribute to teacher satisfaction, retention, and a positive school climate.

    Attendees will leave with classroom-ready tools, reflective practices, and an individualized action plan to enhance their effectiveness, strengthen school culture, and create learning environments where both educators and students thrive.

CATALYST SESSION 3

Monday • 2:10–2:55 PM

  • This session examines how Bloom’s Taxonomy can be used to strengthen alignment between learning outcomes, instructional activities, and assessments in Career and Technical Education (CTE) and STEM classrooms. Participants will explore strategies for increasing cognitive rigor, identifying common alignment gaps, and designing authentic, industry-relevant assessments that measure critical thinking, problem-solving, analysis, and application of technical skills.

    Through practical examples and collaborative discussion, educators will learn how to create learning experiences that prepare students for real-world challenges while promoting deeper understanding and meaningful skill development.

  • Education today needs transformational leaders to boldly meet the challenges schools face. Whether you are a leader already or contemplating stepping into leadership, this session invites participants to explore principles of authentic leadership through increasing self-awareness, understanding realities, exploring leadership paradoxes, and building impactful skills and tools.

    Participants will leave inspired to embrace the challenges of leadership with clarity and resilience, equipped to lead with both conviction and compassion as they prepare for even greater impact on students, staff, and communities.

  • When schools and communities work together, children and families thrive. This session provides an overview of the Mississippi Campaign for Grade-Level Reading (MS CGLR), a framework dedicated to aligning community partners, schools, and families around third-grade reading proficiency and early literacy success.

    Participants will learn how the Campaign equips local stakeholders to mobilize, rally behind schools, and create action plans that ensure students read on grade level by third grade. We will highlight how MS CGLR supports recognized communities in implementing a Family Hub Model, bringing evidence-based programming into trusted spaces to strengthen family engagement.

    Attendees will leave with practical strategies to foster cross-sector collaboration and align community resources to support early childhood success in their own communities.

  • The number one fear in education today isn't a lack of technology, it's AI doing the thinking for students. But AI doesn't replace rigor; it reveals it.

    In this hands-on session, Jacquelyn Thomas flips the cheating conversation on its head, proving that quality AI output demands the very skills we've always wanted students to master: divergent thinking, precise communication, and problem solving.

    Participants will experience the “Unplugged Prompting Lab” using physical manipulatives to model AI logic without a single device, analyze real-world case studies showing how students used AI to solve genuine community problems, and redesign a standard assignment into an AI-resistant critical-thinking tool.

    This session bridges workforce readiness and academic integrity, giving educators a replicable framework to move students from passive consumers to confident, critical creators.

  • Ever feel like you’re competing with TikTok for your students’ attention? You’re not alone. Between pacing guides, standards, and that ever-present device, it can feel nearly impossible to keep kids engaged, let alone excited to come back tomorrow.

    But what if engagement wasn’t about flashy gimmicks, but about designing learning that actually sticks?

    In this highly engaging, practical session, we’ll show you how to use classroom learning experiences to bridge the gap between required content and real-life connections. You’ll discover how small shifts in lesson design can lead to big wins in student engagement, sustained focus, and authentic growth.

    Think less “going through the motions” and more “wow, that actually mattered!” It’s time to break the mold, ditch the one-size-fits-all approach, and create classroom experiences that your students, and you, can’t wait to come back to.

CATALYST SESSION 4

Monday • 3:05–3:50 PM

ROOM 1 | R. Allan Allday
Managing People: Administrators as Consultants and Leaders

ROOM 2 | April Day Garcia
The Room to Be Brave

ROOM 4 | Wanda Maulding
From Idea to Published: How AI Is Changing the Writing and Publishing Process

ROOM 6 | Megan Diede
The Connection Shift

Tap a session title to learn more.

  • This session focuses on the often overlooked role of administrators in serving as consultants for their teachers. As most administrators have to support academic and behavioral changes within the school building, they are rarely explicitly trained to serve in the role of consultant, while maintaining their role as school leader.

    This session will address common conversations had with dozens of school-based administrators regarding their role in shaping adult behavior. This session is also designed for administrators to ask questions and discuss issues being faced in addressing personal, behavioral, and professional challenges in running a school.

  • Every one of us has rooms we've walked into as one version of ourselves and walked out of as another. Some of these rooms, and the experiences that live inside them, filled us with courage. Others quietly handed us beliefs about who we were, what we were worth, or what we could expect from life.

    In The Room to Be Brave, April Day Garcia invites audiences to revisit the moments that shaped them with compassion instead of judgment. Through powerful storytelling and her signature "rooms" framework, she helps people recognize the beliefs they've been carrying, understand where they came from, and discover that while they may not get to choose what happened to them, they do get to choose what those experiences mean moving forward.

    Audiences leave with a new way of understanding their own story, tools for going back into the rooms that shaped them, challenging the messages they accepted there, and choosing which beliefs they want to carry forward.

  • What if the distance between a great idea and a published book were shorter, and a little less overwhelming?

    In this practical, engaging session, Dr. Wanda Sue Maulding Green explores how artificial intelligence is changing the writing and publishing process from first idea to finished product. Drawing from her own experiences in academic, fiction, and children’s publishing, she will demonstrate ways AI can support brainstorming, research, story development, revision, problem-solving, formatting, publishing preparation, and marketing.

    The session will also address an essential question for every writer: How do we use AI without losing the creativity, authenticity, and personal voice that make our work uniquely ours?

    Participants will leave with practical ideas for using AI as a collaborative tool, not as a replacement for the writer, but as a resource that can make the journey from idea to published more efficient, accessible, and achievable.

  • When connection is purposeful, instruction improves. This session helps leaders shift from managing just initiatives to leading aligned and connected systems that drive real instructional impact for student growth.

    Grounded in three essential leadership moves: connecting students through multiple learning pathways, strengthening content with impactful instructional design, and building purposeful collaboration across teams.

    Leaders will leave with clear, actionable steps to improve systems by connecting what drives instruction without adding another checkbox.

CATALYST SESSION 5

Tuesday • 10:10–10:55 AM

  • Continue the Catalyst Stage experience with Weston Kieschnick in this featured breakout session.

  • This session explores how therapy dogs can be thoughtfully and effectively integrated into school settings to support student well-being, engagement, and connection. Grounded in both research and real-world experience, participants will learn the purpose behind animal-assisted interventions, practical ways to implement them, and key considerations for maintaining safe, structured programs.

    The session will include examples of school-based applications, lessons learned, and strategies that can be adapted across grade levels and roles. Attendees will leave with clear, actionable steps to begin or strengthen a therapy dog program in their own school or district.

  • Tired of struggling with reluctant student writers? This session provides a practical roadmap for integrating three high-engagement digital platforms, We Will Write, My Short Answer, and Groovlit, to gamify the writing process.

    Learn actionable strategies for using timed challenges, points, and peer feedback to level up student confidence and writing proficiency in any classroom.

  • Today’s school leaders are navigating unprecedented demands while making hundreds of decisions that affect students, staff, and families. When chronic stress becomes the norm, the brain shifts into survival mode, making it harder to think strategically, regulate emotions, build relationships, and lead effectively.

    Grounded in neuroscience and the Momentous Institute mental health framework, this session helps leaders recognize the signs of operating in overdrive, understand how stress impacts the brain and decision-making, and learn practical strategies to restore regulation, strengthen resilience, and create psychologically safe school cultures.

    Participants will leave with tools they can immediately apply to support both their own well-being and the well-being of their teams.

  • As artificial intelligence reshapes the workforce, educators face a growing challenge: how do we prepare students for careers that are evolving faster than traditional curriculum models? This session explores how project-based AI learning can bridge the gap between classroom instruction and real-world workforce readiness.

    In this hands-on workshop, Jacquelyn Thomas shares practical strategies for designing authentic learning experiences that move students beyond passive technology use into problem-solving, communication, collaboration, and innovation. Drawing from real-world student projects, including AI prototypes connected to community challenges in Memphis, participants will explore how AI can be integrated into existing instruction to build both academic and workforce-ready skills.

    Through live demonstrations, collaborative activities, and an “Unplugged AI Lab,” attendees will experience how computational thinking and AI concepts can be taught even in low-resource environments. Participants will leave with practical frameworks, classroom-ready ideas, and actionable strategies to help students think critically, create solutions, and connect learning to future career pathways

CATALYST SESSION 6

Tuesday • 11:05–11:50 AM

  • Educators are the heartbeat of every school district, yet the increasing demands of the profession often lead to stress, burnout, and attrition. This session explores the critical role of educator resilience in creating thriving schools and sustainable district cultures.

    Participants will examine practical strategies for strengthening personal and professional resilience, building supportive relationships, and creating environments where educators feel valued, connected, and equipped to navigate challenges. Attendees will leave with actionable ideas for supporting educator well-being while strengthening the overall health and effectiveness of their schools and districts.

  • Educators, leaders, and caregivers often carry the emotional weight of the people they serve. Over time, the constant demands of caring can create emotional calluses that protect us from burnout, but can also distance us from the very people and purpose that brought us to the work.

    In this session, Coach BE explores how to remain compassionate, connected, and purpose-driven while navigating the challenges of work that can harden even the most dedicated professionals. Participants will reflect on the emotional cost of caring, recognize signs of compassion fatigue, and explore practical strategies for protecting their own well-being without losing the empathy that makes their work meaningful.

  • Artificial intelligence is rapidly transforming teaching, learning, and leadership. This session explores what educational leaders need to know to navigate this changing landscape with confidence and purpose.

    Participants will examine practical applications of AI in education, consider opportunities and challenges associated with its use, and explore strategies for leading responsible and meaningful AI integration. The session will focus on helping leaders move beyond simply adopting new tools to creating thoughtful systems that support educators, strengthen instruction, and prepare students for an AI-influenced future.

  • Special education can feel overwhelming, confusing, and filled with terminology, procedures, and requirements that educators are expected to understand and implement effectively.

    This session breaks down key concepts in special education in a practical, accessible way to help educators better understand their responsibilities and strengthen support for students with disabilities. Participants will explore common challenges, clarify misconceptions, and gain strategies they can apply within their schools and classrooms to improve collaboration, compliance, and student outcomes.

CATALYST SESSION 7

Tuesday • 2:00–2:45 PM

  • Continue the Catalyst Stage experience with Dr. George Fassitt and Greg Fassitt in this featured breakout session.

  • Join Bob Buseck of Mississippi Coding Academies for a featured breakout focused on connecting education, technology, and the skills needed for Mississippi’s evolving workforce.

  • In-school suspension (ISS) is often viewed as a disciplinary holding space, but what if it could become a catalyst for student growth and teacher support? This session explores how teacher perceptions of ISS shape its effectiveness and how schools can move beyond punitive practices toward restorative, instructional, and relationship-centered approaches.

    Drawing from research and real-world practice, participants will examine strategies for reimagining ISS as an opportunity to address behavior, strengthen student accountability, and support successful transitions back into the classroom. Attendees will leave with practical ideas for creating ISS structures that better serve students, teachers, and the broader school community.

  • Education systems around the world approach teaching, learning, leadership, and student success in different ways. This session invites participants to look beyond their own classrooms and communities to consider what global perspectives can teach us about improving education locally.

    Participants will explore international practices, ideas, and observations that can inspire reflection and innovation within their own schools. The goal is not to simply replicate what is happening elsewhere, but to identify meaningful insights that can be adapted to strengthen teaching, learning, and educational leadership in local contexts.